Citation relationship data map
Using Apple's Augmented Reality(AR; AR glass) as a field example, this map provides citation related contents using PatentPia GoldenCompass. If you click on the chain(link) marks that are attached to each item in the above utilisation map, the example page will open in a new window.
Classification of citation data
Individual patent data, like an article, contains the reference (backward citation) article numbers for that patent. The reference data is called citation data.
Citation direction: preceding references vs. subsequent forward citations
There are two citation directions: i) forward citations, which consist of the preceding references that you cite, and ii) backward citations, which are references to yourself.
If P1's patent has preceding patents P01 and P02 in its references, then P01 and P02 will be P1's references/backward citations. On the other hand, if P2 has P1 in its references, P2 will be P1's backward citations.
Citation origins
There are five main sources of citations (references): i) IDS by applicant, ii) citations by examiner, iii) citations during examiner office action (OA), iv) citations in the literature, and v) citations due to prior art search by the intellectual property office. In United States of America patents, i) to iv) occur.
Citation - whether or not there is an owner match between the forward citations and the patent.
When the right holders of a self patent and its references match, it is called self-references.
If P1's reference patent P0 and P1's forward citations patent P2 are all in a self citation relationship (P2 is citing (referencing) P1, and P1 is citing P0), then P0, P1, and P2 are highly technically related to each other. A set of patents that are both technically related and sequentially separated in time is closely related to R&D continuity, because P1 is likely to contain technology that is in an improvement-improvement-extension-extension-application-connected relationship with P0, and P2 is likely to contain technology that is in an improvement-improvement-extension-extension-application-connected relationship with P1.
Patent sets in self reference or self forward citation relationships will have high R&D continuity, and patent sets with high R&D continuity are non-exclusively reflected in a company's products. Among patents, patents that are strongly reflected in products can be considered as important patents. Patents with a strong self-reference/self-forward citation relationship, along with patents with a high No. of domestic and international patent families, can be used to estimate the patents reflected in a company's product strategy.
Nation of citations
The citation (reference) patent (P0) of a particular patent (P1) may also be a patent in another country. In this case, from the perspective of the patent (P0) in the other country, it can be said that it was cited by the later application (P1) and not by its own country. When the nations (intellectual property offices) of such citation-forward citations by overseas patents are different, they are called overseas citation-forward citations.
Citation-forward citations by special patents(coming soon)
Special patents include i) purchased/enforcement-setting patents, ii) litigation-involving patents such as litigation/trials, iii) patents used in standards/FDA approvals, iv) patents held by NPEs or high-risk right holders, v) patents with many self-reference/forward citations, vi) rapidly growing self-forward citations, vii) patents in domestic/foreign patent families, etc. If you have a citation (reference)-citation relationship with these special patents, you may need to take special care.
For example, if your particular (technology, product, etc.) patent set has many preceding patents in the citation (reference) patent set of i) to iv), or is nested in the patent set of a particular right holder, then your particular area (technology, product, etc.) is likely to be at patent risk.
Conversely, if there are many patents from i) to iv) in the subsequent forward citations of one's particular (technology, product, etc.) patent set, or if it is nested in a particular right holder's patent set, then one's particular domain set is likely to be a technology/patent business opportunity.
(Note)Forward citations by special patents are implemented through PatentPia Analytics.
Patent citation data processing process
Features of PatentPia citation contents
Citation contents in response to collective input
PatentPia GoldenCompass citation content goes beyond individual patent units to provide citation-forward citations contents on a patent set basis. Patent set criteria has patent sets corresponding to i) company, ii) keyword, iii) technical field/patent classification, iv) researcher , v) keyword/technical field/patent classification of company, and vi) keyword/technical field/patent classification of researcher. Patent set criteria's citation-forward citations content is an innovative data service with a global view.
Segmented citation
PatentPia GoldenCompass citation contents are segmented into i) total vs. examiner vs. examiner OA, ii) domestic vs. foreign, iii) general vs. self, iv) total vs. per patent, etc. And, PatentPia Analytics allows you to analyse citations (references) and self-forward citations by special patents.
Business-oriented citation contents
With PatentPia GoldenCompass citation and forward citations contents,
i) Comparison of technology between companies using citation data, which is the most objective data for technology comparison,
ii) Discover M&A/investing/collaboration targets in a specific field, such as companies with total citations, rapidly growing forward citations, or citations per patent; and
iii) Discovery of researchers to target for HR/collaboration, such as researchers with high total citations, rapidly growing forward citations, or citations per patent in a specific field, etc.
Risk management-oriented citation contents(coming soon)
By leveraging PatentPia GoldenCompass reference contents,
i) Patent risk awareness focusing on Companies with patents in possession of preceding reference (especially NPEs) with high total citations, citation spikes, or citations per patent in a particular field
in a particular field.
By utilising PatentPia Analytics reference analysis,
i) identify patent risk by focusing on Companies with patents in possession of preceding reference (especially NPEs) that have received the highest total citations, citation spikes, or citations per patent in a particular field
in a particular field.
Utilizaing citations-forward citations data from PatentPia
GoldenCompass analysis service
PatentPia GoldenCompass provides forward citation-copyright contents by patent set criteria. Patent set criteria has patent sets corresponding to i) company, ii) keyword, iii) technology field/patent classification, iv) researcher , v) keyword/technology field/patent classification of company, vi) keyword/technology field/patent classification of researchers, etc.
Analytics Service(coming soon)
PatentPia Analytics provides more than 100 analysis contents for citation (reference) patentsets and forward citations of the entered patentsets.
The citation-copyright analysis contents of Analytics include.
i) Citation-Citation trends as well as,
ii) Discovery of technology/patent business opportunities such as M&A/HR/patent purchase/monetisation, etc,
iii) advanced citation-citation analysis such as early recognition of patent risks, etc.
Search Service
In PatentPia Search, it contains function of processing criteria-matched
i) General patent search/Events(transactions/litigations/trials etc.) patent search
ii) Events(transactions/litigation/trials, etc.) search
as entering various kinds of No. of forward citations for search criteria.
